| Lead pipes poison the water of millions of people in the United States. Now, to follow through on the corporate-friendly deregulation laid out in Project 2025, President Trump ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to block hundreds of millions in federal funding for lead service line replacement. | | Trump’s order would mean more lead in our drinking water. | | There’s no safe level of lead exposure for anyone, which is why Earthjustice has worked for years alongside clients, partners, and advocates like you to strengthen protections against lead. Our work challenged dangerously flawed rules on lead, paving the road for much stronger safeguards in 2024. We will not cede any ground on the progress we’ve made. | | Learn more about how Earthjustice is fighting lead contamination. |
| Sincerely,
The Team at Earthjustice
200 Lawyers 15 Offices 620 Cases Earthjustice goes to court for our planet.
We’re here because the earth needs a good lawyer. Gary Palmer, a Republican congressman from Alabama, introduced a resolution to eliminate new protections against lead in drinking water — including a requirement to replace most lead service lines in the country within the next 10 years. Lead pipes poison the water of millions of people in the United States. A week later, President Trump ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to block hundreds of millions in federal funding to states for lead service line replacement, defying Congress and putting public health at risk. Why it matters: There is no safe level of lead exposure for anyone, and especially for children, which is why Earthjustice has worked for years alongside our partners and clients to strengthen lead protections. Our work successfully challenged dangerously flawed rules on lead, paving the way for much stronger regulations in 2024. We won’t back down or cede any ground on the progress we’ve made against known hazards like lead. How radical actions from Congress and the White House put us all at risk.- Regulatory Roadblocks: Lawmakers are using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overturn major environmental safeguards and stop agencies from creating similar protections in the future. This action could make it extremely difficult to implement future protections against lead in drinking water.
- Neglecting urgent action needed: If protections against lead in drinking water are eliminated, by the EPA’s own estimates, only 5% of lead service lines would be replaced over the next 35 years.
- Health Risks: Blocking stronger lead regulations allows millions of Americans to remain exposed to toxic lead in drinking water, posing severe health risks, especially to children, who are most vulnerable to lead-related developmental harm. Communities drinking lead contaminated water should not have to wait decades for help.
- Economic Costs: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided states with an unprecedented and sorely needed $15 billion dollar investment in lead service line removal funding. In a brazen act of disregard for laws already passed by Congress, the Trump administration unilaterally decided to halt that funding to states.
How does lead contamination impact our health?How is Earthjustice fighting lead contamination?- For years, Earthjustice has pushed to update basic health and safety protections for lead contamination, using our deep bench of legal expertise to protect communities, especially those who are most vulnerable to lead contamination.
- In 2019, Earthjustice sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on behalf of community advocacy and environmental organizations for failing to establish protective lead hazard standards for older housing and child-occupied facilities like schools and daycares. In 2021, we sued the EPA again for its failure to propose adequate measures for replacing lead pipes in homes, schools, and childcare facilities.
- In response to successful lawsuits by Earthjustice and others, as well as grassroots pressure from frontline communities, the EPA unveiled landmark rules in late 2024 that requires the replacement of most lead pipes nationwide within a decade and tighten its standards for lead in dust from deteriorating lead paint found in many homes, schools, and daycares.
We’ve come too far on strengthening lead protections to back down. Communities drinking contaminated water because of lead pipes should not have to wait decades for help. Take action. A lead pipe is shown after being replaced by a copper water supply line to a home in Flint, Mich., July 20, 2018. The Environmental Protection Agency will soon strengthen lead in drinking water regulations. (Paul Sancya / AP) “Our clients are community groups, farmworker communities, other nonprofit environmental and public-health organizations, scientists — and we will continue to hold the government accountable to the law.” –Patrice Simms VP of Litigation, Earthjustice Earthjustice uses the power of the law to ensure that all people have safe workplaces and neighborhoods, have access to safe drinking water and food, and live in homes that are free of hazardous chemicals. We are able to do this work because of supporters like you.
|
|
|---|
|
| 
| | Earthjustice, 50 California Street, Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94111 | | About Us | | Delivered to you by Earthjustice. Your support makes the difference. | | Photo Credits: A copper water supply line replaced this lead pipe in Flint, Mich., in 2018. (Paul Sancya / AP) | | © 2025 |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment